Ledgerscope’s tool aims to help banks with lending decisions

The new service, called Ledgerflow, has been created by accountant Adrian Pearson and his team at Skipton-based Ledgerscope.

It extracts prospective loanee’s financial data, with their express permission, to gain further insights into the financial health of a business.

Ledgerscope said it helps accountants to analyse their clients’ data. Ledgerflow, its new, cloud-based service, uses an API (app programming interface) to extract financial data in minutes and present it to the lender in an easy to understand, standardised format.

The firm said Ledgerflow can be used by both small lending firms and multinational banks to offer asset finance and business loans.

The API, which launches in the UK and Ireland in September, will be available as a Software as a Service. A white label option, which can be rebranded, allows lenders to evaluate up-to-date business performance directly from SME’s accounting software without additional development.

The team at Ledgerscope said it has drawn on a decade of developing open accounting software to create Ledgerflow.

The group’s managing director, Adrian Pearson, said: “The relationship between many financial firms and their clients continues to become more distant.

“High street business banking has more or less disappeared and so has the tradition of lenders getting to really know their clients and concerns.

“Yet, the need to understand a business’s position and needs is as important as ever for lenders. Ledgerflow offers lenders up-to-date and reliable data on which to base critical decisions.”

Marketing director, Rob Furness, added: “The open finance tool is emerging as a way to bridge the knowledge gap.

“We see huge possibilities for financial professionals to gain valuable insights to support their clients more effectively and grow their own services.”

Ledgerscope said it has a good history of bringing new services to the market. The firm established Movemybooks, the preferred accounting data conversion service for Sage, QuickBooks and Xero in the UK and North America over the last 10 years.